Changing Seasons

There was a little glimpse of the return of the bright days recently. This painting is a wish for bright days. I have added suggested details for the viewer to discover while exploring this otherwise empty scene.

The colours are: Indian Red, Yellow Ochre, Cobalt blue, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Yellow, French Ultramarine and black and white. Cobalt Blue always makes such a summery sky. There was a little French Ultramarine added in the upper part of the sky to deepen the blue. This blue was also added to Burnt Umber to produce the rich dark brown colour of the trees and hedges. The Indian Red was used with the Burnt Umber to introduce red into the colour scheme. The soft ‘summer’ green in the distant hills and mid distance was a mix of Cadmium Yellow and Cobalt Blue. Cadmium Yellow and Yellow Ochre mixes well with white, with very little loss in chroma, and this produced the bright yellow in the foreground grasses.

Already the dark browns have dried dull (after 3 days). I am using Liquin sparingly for the handling advantages offered by this medium. As the tree was painted over a heavy layer of paint in the sky I scraped off this paint where the branches of the tree were going to be painted. In a way I drew the tree with the knife and then painted into the scratch lines finishing the finer branches with a small long bristled nylon brush. This is where the Liquin makes the task easier. By the time these fine branches were painted (after about 40 minutes), the Liquin had begun to get ‘tacky’, drawing the paint off the brush. If I had used Linseed Oil in the sky mix, the fine brush would pick up more paint from the sky than tree colour put down.

When you see the video (next post) you will see a correction made to the second bird from the left. It was a little ‘fat’ so had to be ‘slimmed’ down to the correct size. By keeping a little of the sky colour on the pallet and the brush which was used to paint the sky without cleaning it, ensures you can make these corrections without it being noticeable. Painting ‘alla prima’, you always have to be ready to make these adjustments.

Happy new year to all readers, see you at the next post.